Vaughan Recital Series Performance Inquiry

Vaughan Recital Series

Melinda Pauly O'Neal

Submitted by Web Services Editor on Wed, 08/28/2013 - 00:00

Professor of Music Melinda O’Neal acknowledged that her “Music 52” students had “a very tall order” for their final class project: They had a full orchestral score to learn and just two weeks in which to prepare to conduct 30 instrumentalists.

In the week leading up to the final day, each of the eight students conducted two pianists in four-hand arrangements of Schubert, Mozart, and Mendelssohn excerpts, imagining the orchestra layout and instrument timbres while in Faulkner Recital Hall. During these sessions, O’Neal frequently clapped to stop the music so that she could offer recommendations. Occasionally O’Neal, the conductor emerita for the Handel Choir of Baltimore, rose from her seat near the back row to demonstrate a gesture, providing visual guidance. She rarely doled out praise, but her directions were clear and sometimes as simple as reminding the students to check the tempo or to breathe.

“You need to set the salt on the table,” she said to one student, gesturing in a more subdued downward motion.

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Diversity and inclusivity are necessary partners. Without inclusivity, the benefits ofdiversity—an increase in understanding, improvement in performance, enhanced innovation, and heightened levels of satisfaction—will not be realized.” - PresidentPhilip Hanlon ’77 - Excerpt from May 2016 Letter to the Dartmouth community